BLACK CILICE - Banished From Time (12" LP on Grimace Purple Vinyl)
Portugal | Raw Black
Detailed Description
- 350gsm Jacket With Matt Varnish And Inside Flooded In Black
- 140g Grimace Purple Vinyl
- 250gsm Cardboard Insert With Matt Varnish
- A2 Poster On 150gsm Art Paper
- Limited To 300 Copies
Truly embodying the definition of "underground," Black Cilice lurked in the shadows its first five years - or perhaps even longer, as the one-man band's history is as mysterious as he is elusive - releasing a slew of demos and splits, all eventually culminating in two impossibly-rare albums. But then, in 2015, the mysterious mainman joined forces with Iron Bonehead to release the monolithic Mysteries. The album would go on to be hailed far and wide, and often from corners of the cultural landscape not usually acclimated to things of a resolutely raw nature: truly, Black Cilice was being celebrated for his content and vision alone rather than more socialistic aspects of the hype machine. But "being celebrated" and "hype" are forever far from the Black Cilice worldview, and with this armament comes Banished From Time. Like its three full-length predecessors, Banished From Time is characteristically Black Cilice to the bone: a wave of in-the-red rawness greets the wary listener, surging second-wave black metal to the bone, but underneath those layers of filth 'n' fatalism lies a melancholic majesty that's truly a splendor to behold. Just like its predecessors, some could even qualify Banished From Time as "beautiful" - if that beauty was bespoiled for centuries in a cold, cobwebbed castle. Intractably black metal, once again, we find here that "purism" need not be shorthand for a dearth of ideas: Black Cilice twists the anachronisms of classic black metal into ageless, endlessly spellbinding forms, each undulating wave lapping back against the other to utterly hypnotizing effect. Yet, Banished From Time breaks a bit from the established Black Cilice canon, if more so thematically. Whereas Mysteries ended a three-album trilogy, Banished From Time is meant as a disruptive album whilst keeping the intractable, idiosyncratic identity of the Black Cilice sound. We can point to the overall production, which is thicker and less strident, and the voice, in kind, has become more "present" and aggressive. But these are all simply signposts for the spiritual/metaphysical state presented in Banished From Time: Black Cilice living physically in the present but not belonging to the present, living in the past (amidst ruins, surrounded by spirits) but not belonging to the past. As usual, the lyrics focus on paranormal experiences, the borderline between the living and the dead and channeling spirits in long forgotten ruins, apart from the world.
